Thursday November 12th, alumni and active Brothers of the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta hosted a game of Ag Trivia for potential new members. Questions ranged from NC Agriculture to events that Alpha Zeta participates in. Did you know that an NC Fraser Fir has been chosen for the White House thirteen times? In first place was alumni Brother Wilson, second place Brother Fright and in third was Scribe Furr. Thank you to Censor Cowles for organizing this event and thank you to the alumni who joined in on the fun.

Seven Brothers of the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta tuned in via Zoom for a farm tour of Brother Farmer’s family farms peanut operation in Pitt County on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020. Brother Farmer’s family farm has grown peanuts for over 50 years in North Carolina. In addition, they grow corn, soybean and cotton (with cover crops in the winter). Brother Farmer showed us the basics of peanut farming operations: explaining to us what the peanut combine does, showing us the importance of the vine lifters and answering questions about common pest and disease problems the farm aims to mitigate. COVID-19 causing NC State students to be sent back home, Brother Farmer has been more involved than ever in the farms operations- but he’s used to that, telling us that he drove a tractor by himself at the old age of nine years old. Thank you to Brother Farmer for this unique (and well presented) tour of your family’s farm. We hope one day to get out there to Pitt County in person but nevertheless this was still a fantastic opportunity for the Brotherhood. Lastly, thank you to Brother Barber who has done a great job this semester of finding ingenious ways to provide the Brotherhood with meaningful and educational farm tours.

October 26th, 2020, eight members of the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta tuned into a live virtual tour of the Westover Mill. Located in Maryland, this feed mill is operated by Mountaire farms. Members heard from John Stainbrook about the ins and outs of the Mill. He went over over how the pellets are made and what his roles are within the Westover Mill. Brother Davis recently landed a job with Mountaire farms as a management trainee and offered to host this exclusive tour for the Brotherhood. Thank you to Brother Davis, Mr. Stainbrook and Brother Barber for giving us the opportunity to learn about this facet of agriculture.

October 24th, 2020, members of the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta traveled to Haw River in Alamance County to assist in the clean-up efforts of the pollinator garden. Brothers cleaned debris and pulled weeds in preparation to plant a native seed pollinator mix. Thank you to Alumni, Brother Wilson, for sharing this project with us and thank you to Brother Deese for organizing the event. 

On October 20th, 2020, members of the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta tuned into the Virtual Blackland Farm Managers Tour posted on Youtube by Beaufort County Cooperative Extension. Brothers watched a series of pre-recorded videos with topics ranging from Foliar Fertilizers to Soybean Fungicidal Seed Treatments. Thank you to alumni, Brother Kaitlyn Moody Milstein for bringing this opportunity to our attention and thank you to Brother Barber for organizing the event for the Brotherhood. Once again, North Carolina Cooperative Extension continues to provide excellent educational material for the public.

If anyone is interested, here is the link to the Beaufort County Extension’s youtube channel where we accessed the videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8eojykmCX0&list=PLlmI2LdCTo8yP0eWDpUmVZe5gMkkoPzDt
 

On October 13th, 2020, active members and distinguished alumni of the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta participated in a virtual trivia with the North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture, Steve Troxler. As a part of his re-election campaign, Troxler engaged with the community by answering questions and offering insight on some of the biggest areas of North Carolina Agriculture. Did you know that North Carolina is ranked #1 in production of both Tobacco and Sweet Potatoes? Thank you to Brother Davis for inviting the Brotherhood to this event.

On October 6th and 7th, 2020, the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta held Rush via Zoom to foster interest in the Fraternity. Both nights, our committee heads and officers spoke about our activities and why we all enjoy being a part of Alpha Zeta. It was exciting to see a few potential new members, answer their questions and as well get a reminder of why we all love this Brotherhood so much. Due to COVID-19 restrictions on NC State’s campus, the Fraternity has decided to postpone Fall New Member Education Week until next Spring but still held Rush to prepare. Thank you to all active members and advisors who shared their sentiment for our organization and gave a warm welcome to these potential new members. And a bigger thank you to Censor Cowles who organized and made this event a success! 

On September 20th, 2020, nine Active Brothers of the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta participated in an Adopt-A-Highway Service project! Cleaning 1 mile of Trinity Road near Carter-Finley Stadium (Go Pack!), Brothers picked up 3 bags of trash and consolidated 1 bag of recyclable materials. What a great way to make an immediate impact on our Raleigh community and strengthen fellowship within the Brotherhood! Thank you to Brother Deese for organizing this project and to Scribe Furr for providing the materials!

On September 19th, 2020, thirteen Active Brothers and an Alumni from the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta traveled (or tuned in via Zoom) to Bladen County for a farm tour of the Barber Family Farm. The Barber Farm (90 acres) is a contract grower to the Duplin Winery. They grow two different varieties of Muscadine grapes, Carlos and Dorine. Brothers got the opportunity to watch the grapes being harvested in season by a grape combine harvester. One box (pictured) holds about 1,500 pounds of grapes. One 18-wheeler truck load of 38 boxes of grapes can weigh 28 to 30 tons. Thank you to Brother Barber, Sonya, George and Luke for letting us visit and giving us such a wonderful and interesting tour!

On July 10th and 11th, the newly inducted officers of the North Carolina Chapter met for a business meeting and officer retreat. The business meeting was productive in that ideas for this unprecedented year concerning community service projects, new member education week and active status requirements were discussed. Saturday (11th) part of the officer team took a trip to White Lake where afterwards they took a farm tour of a Bladen County Muscadine farm. Although much is unknown about this next semester, we are looking forward to seeing everyone at our first chapter meeting (via Zoom) on Wednesday August 12th!